Ume to reopen as a bar

Chef Kerby Craig stays Japanese but swaps fancy food for
something a little more fun.

Busy opening his new Ume Burger outlet at Barangaroo, Sydney
chef Kerby Craig plans to close Ume, his Surry Hills restaurant, in its
current incarnation on July 18.

"If I spend all my time down at Barangaroo, Ume as a refined
Japanese restaurant will suffer," he says. "But if I spend all of
my time at Ume, the hamburger shop will suffer." Something had to
give.

Instead of selling up and moving on, though, Craig has decided
to turn the bijou Bourke Street space into something new, more like
"a drinking hole", he says.

Bar Ume will open in August with an izakaya focus. Craig says
he'll experiment with "more casual, Japanese home cooking" with
soups, rice and pickles and dishes such as hamburg steak, which is
"basically a meat patty served with gravy, grated daikon and rice
or shredded cabbage," and omurice, an omelette with fried rice and
tomato sauce. The menu will include "special, changing and unique"
burgers, seasonal vegetable dishes, and plenty of sides.

"No more refined Japanese food," he says. "It's an opportunity
to do something more casual and fun. Bar Ume will be more of the
neighbourhood spot that's influenced by home-style cooking in
Japan."

The drinks list will house natural wines and shochu by the
glass, sake by the flask, highball cocktails and Japanese whiskey
options, and a large selection of Japanese craft beers. Ume as you
know it is dead; long live Bar Ume and Ume Burger.